Are there tactical war games where you can move all units on the board?
What kind of mechanics do they use to remember what unit has already moved?
I was thinking about tapping tokens.
Moving all units, how to keep track of it!
Fri, 09/27/2013 - 13:36
Sat, 09/28/2013 - 22:42
#1
Dirtside 2
Dirtside 2 uses unit experience markers that are turned over after the unit has done it's activation.
Sun, 09/29/2013 - 10:43
#2
I have a bare-bones tactical
I have a bare-bones tactical spaceship game I've been working on, and one of the terrain ideas I had was an asteroid field. My idea is that each asteroid would be a tile or poker chip with 2 different colored sides. As the asteroid moves, you flip it over. That way, you can look and see which units have moved, and which haven't.
Another idea was to use glass beads to mark which asteroids have moved, and then remove all the beads when the turn is over.
Sun, 09/29/2013 - 15:29
#3
larienna wrote:Are there
Are there tactical war games where you can move all units on the board?
Yes. All tactical wargames used to be that. I don't know when someone invented card-driven or chit-pull systems, or various types of action-point systems, but all the classics were just simple IGOUGO (both thinking of miniatures and board wargames), and the majority of wargames published now probably still are.
What kind of mechanics do they use to remember what unit has already moved?
I was thinking about tapping tokens.
I was thinking about tapping tokens.
Normally nothing at all is said in the rulebook. In a few games there is a recommendation that you for instance turn all units 90 or 45 degrees after you move them. In Battles of Westeros (ameritrash-wargame) each unit has a banner that you rotate 180 degrees after each move, showing a white or black side, and each turn is painted white or black on the turn track, so you know that all units with a banner that is rotated to show you the same color as the current turn have moved (or have not moved... I can never remember which it is, so I think it is a rather bad rule really). Some games come with Moved and/or Fired markers that you can place on units to remember if they have.
Usuallly, especially when there are very many units, the easiest thing to do is just to methodically move one unit at a time starting on one side of the game board and working your way towards the other side. It is too easy to forget to rotate something or place/remove markers, that I find it mostly confusing. There are exceptions when game turns are very long and your units can fire during the opponent's turn and you have to track what units have fired because they may be prohibited from moving the next turn or whatever, so it would be almost impossible to remember without marking them, but during your movement phase it is rarely a problem.
Sun, 09/29/2013 - 16:06
#4
Garrisons?
Usuallly, especially when there are very many units, the easiest thing to do is just to methodically move one unit at a time starting on one side of the game board and working your way towards the other side. It is too easy to forget to rotate something or place/remove markers, that I find it mostly confusing.
That's why I was thinking about *garrisons* and moving in formation TOGETHER. My concept is to have four (4) mini mats on which there is enough spaces to place like ten (10) troops in the garrison. Doesn't mean that there can't be less (just a sample maximum). Next the player uses ONE (1) token on the board to "reference" the garrison that is moving.
The result is that you only need to know which *garrison* moved (and there are only four)! The reason I limit it to four (4) is because of SPACE restrictions on the table you are playing on... Four (4) seems about enough but not too much there is no room to play.
Sun, 09/29/2013 - 23:17
#6
All good ideas!
One idea was to use a small map with a low amount of units on each side like a dozen so that it becomes easily rememberable.
Another idea was to have cards that tells you "move 5 units", "move 3 units" OR that gives you a list of movement like:
Move 3 sea units
Move 5 air units
Move 5 ground units
So you execute them in this order and have little chance of confusion.
Another idea was to separate various flanks in various colors and play 1 flank at a time with the option to have each flank be played by a different player.
I think all three (3) of those options sound like good ideas. The third one may be a little bit difficult because a "flank" could have a lot of units and keeping track of which one moves could be difficult. You would probably need to restrict the SIZE of the "flanks".
What I LIKE (and I will explain why) is the first choice. Why? Because it means you don't need to move ten (10) units, you only move one - and the group moves along with it. This does not mean you cannot change or reorder the units... No it just means that units move together and have their own relative positions in the garrison.
The cards are a compromise between both... Easy to remember which to move - BUT it again means that you need to move ALL units (at some point). But you take turns and can move your armies incrementally (this I like also).
Sounds like you have interesting options to try out...
Mon, 09/30/2013 - 04:39
#7
questccg wrote:
That's why I
That's why I was thinking about *garrisons* and moving in formation TOGETHER. My concept is to have four (4) mini mats on which there is enough spaces to place like ten (10) troops in the garrison. Doesn't mean that there can't be less (just a sample maximum). Next the player uses ONE (1) token on the board to "reference" the garrison that is moving.
The result is that you only need to know which *garrison* moved (and there are only four)! The reason I limit it to four (4) is because of SPACE restrictions on the table you are playing on... Four (4) seems about enough but not too much there is no room to play.
I think you want some other word, because if there is something a garrison do not do it is moving. :) (Definition on wikipedia begins: "a body of troops stationed in a particular location").
Are you talking about having 4 off-map holding boxes where you place the units in each formation, and then just move the 4 formation tokens on the actual board? That's a good idea. It is a very simple and effective way to implement fog of war, especially if you add some dummy tokens that do not represent a real formation, and move the tokens upside down so that the opponent can not tell which one is which.
Mon, 09/30/2013 - 04:46
#8
larienna wrote:
One idea was
One idea was to use a small map with a low amount of units on each side like a dozen so that it becomes easily rememberable.
As I wrote above, as long as you allow all units to move at the same time (not sure if you do as I have no time to read your rulebook right now) then keeping track of hundreds of units is not a problem.
Another idea was to have cards that tells you "move 5 units", "move 3 units" OR that gives you a list of movement like:
Move 3 sea units
Move 5 air units
Move 5 ground units
So you execute them in this order and have little chance of confusion.
This is normally called 'chit-pull activation' because normally you draw from a cup of cardboard chits to activate (a deck of cards is of course functionally equivalent, but more expensive to produce, at least if you already have a sheet of cardboard counters for the game anyway). The problem is that now you does get complicated to track what units moved. If each card activates some specific unit(s) then it is trivial (just keep that card in front of you as a reminder), otherwise even with few units you probably need some kind of markers to put on units as reminders.
Another idea was to separate various flanks in various colors and play 1 flank at a time with the option to have each flank be played by a different player.
Look up Ben Hull's Musket & Pike Battle Series.
Mon, 09/30/2013 - 22:08
#9
Quote: The problem is that
The problem is that now you does get complicated to track what units moved.
It's the opposite. If you move 5 units. Then your opponent move 5 units. When it's your turn again and you are allowed to move 5 units again, any unit can move. So all movement are reset each turn. So the same 5 units could move multiple times while other units stay idle.
It's just that remembering the movement of 5 units is much easier. Conflict video games used such system with the move 3 units restriction each turn. It forces you to focus on a specific flank at a time.
For thise interested, here is a close up of my last proto.
http://bgd.lariennalibrary.com/uploads/Mainsite/GameIdea/GameIdea2010032...
One idea was to use a small map with a low amount of units on each side like a dozen so that it becomes easily rememberable.
Another idea was to have cards that tells you "move 5 units", "move 3 units" OR that gives you a list of movement like:
Move 3 sea units
Move 5 air units
Move 5 ground units
So you execute them in this order and have little chance of confusion.
Another idea was to separate various flanks in various colors and play 1 flank at a time with the option to have each flank be played by a different player.